Insights from the Soup Kitchen

 Location: Typhoon Ondoy Victims, Pasig

 Evacuation Center @ ULTRA

October 5, 2009

Knowledge Channel Soup Kitchen 

1) 95% of the kids and adults i saw don't have slippers

2) A lot of the kids are resilient. Staying at the evacuation center can be like a prolonged picnic..., with many new friends to make, and eating on the floor with a bigger family - about 3,000 members in the new family.

3) It's the moms who are really stressed. They constantly worry where to get the next meal for the family (or for her infant), how to treat their sick children, and how on earth are they going to rebuild their homes again when there is nothing left to start over with.

4) Children don't hold back in expressing their happiness. So when they smile at you, you feel that they are the ones bestowing you a gift, and not the other way around.

5) There is still so much to be done. It's overwhelming. But the things you cannot do should not stop you from doing the things that you can.

6) Being interviewed on the spot is not as easy as it looks. =)

7) It is a humbling experience.  I know deep down it could have easily been me, or my family, in that evacuation center.  Everything I have could be wiped away in an instant.  I don't really own anything.